Greenhill have restored to print thirteen important books by Sir Charles Oman, ranging from A History of the Art of War in the Middle Ages to A History of the Peninsular War. In the new A History of the Peninsular War, Volume IX: Modern Studies of the War in Spain and Portugal, 1808–1814 Paddy Griffith provides a biography of this remarkable man. Because so many readers of Greenhill Military Book News will know his name and his work, we excerpt some of the biography to throw light on this renowned historian: "Sir Charles William Chadwick Oman (1860–1946, six feet tall and an only child) has always suffered from a double reputation. On the one hand, he must be considered one of the leading historians of his age, writing influential books on many diverse subjects – especially the great History of the Peninsular War – and holding the prestigious Chichele chair of Modern History at All Souls College, Oxford, from 1905 until the end of his life. With a double first in classics (especially ancient history) and modern history, his expertise spanned the whole of recorded 'Western Civilisation'. He was competent in at least five modern languages, and 'he delighted his friends by his ready omniscience on all manner of concrete and recondite fact.' He was energetic in fields as far apart as numismatics, porcelain, the paranormal, and the listing of medieval castles. He helped to found a welter of learned societies – and one political journal – and he left his mark upon the Oxford Union, where he was Librarian for a time as an undergraduate; upon the Codrington and Imperial War Museum libraries; upon the Oxford university OTC; upon the debate over casualties in the Great War, and, indeed, upon the House of Commons itself, where he sat as burgess for the University of Oxford from 1919 to 1935. He was also doubtless highly influential in establishing the Chichele chair of Military History in All Souls College in 1909, which would continue until 1968. Yet on the other hand Sir Charles had a reputation among scholars as a somewhat less than serious scholar, and among politicians as a somewhat less than serious politician. While in the Oxford of the 1920s, A.L. Rowse reports that his fellow academics 'thought that Oman was out of date, with his Right-wing views and his interest in war'. In parliament he was 'out of place' and he was nicknamed 'Stone Age Man'. We must remember that outspoken Tory MPs with a liking for military history have always been particularly open to caricature, as have been the last-ditch defenders of Latin and Greek as non-negotiable requirements for matriculation into the University of Oxford. The freedom that Oman found at All Souls also enabled him to strike out in a second direction, which was to write the books that he wanted to write, rather than simply the 'manuals' (or school textbooks) that publishers asked him for. He subscribed to the admirable principle that 'accumulating merit', rather than making money, was the true reason for working as an historian – although, of course, he could afford to adopt this stance since he enjoyed an adequate salary for teaching just twenty-seven hours per week. He had found that a higher workload became too stressful to allow him to write, and on medical advice he also helped to calm his stress by smoking cigarettes between tutorials. From 1907 he also enjoyed the happy benefits of an independent income, from his parents' legacy, so he was always able to find sufficient leisure time to exercise his energetic pen. The 'serious' side of Oman's military interest is well known through his writings; but his hobbies associated with it are less familiar. The first of these was wargaming, which 'remained one of my favourite amusements for many a year'. The Oxford Kriegsspiel club had been founded by Spenser Wilkinson in 1873 as part of the volunteer corps (later Officers' Training Corps, or OTC), and it continued to flourish until the Great War. By that time Oman had graduated through the ranks of company, battalion, and Division commander, to the lofty status of umpire and problem-setter. He could imagine a Fuzzy-Wuzzy rising on the Ridgeway near Wantage as easily as he could conjure up a British Expeditionary Force refighting the battle of Sadowa; and he could refight Chesney's imagined 'Battle of Dorking' as readily as he could update the real 1644 scenario around Salisbury and Devizes, or realign the Salamanca campaign of 1812 to fit into the terrain between the Severn and Oxford. The February 1909 game against the Inns of Court was particularly elaborate and prestigious, although regrettably the Oxford team contrived to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Oman was also involved in the 'Martians' military discussion group about the present and future state of warfare, and he participated in the OTC's staff rides and other tactical exercises. Oman is indeed still being condemned for his military 'frivolity', or at least for his lack of service in any army, by those who believe that only old soldiers can be competent to write about military affairs. To this the clear riposte must be that although military historians may be amateurs in living the military life, they are nevertheless professionals in studying and analysing it. One does not have to be an insect in order to be an entomologist or, as Oman himself put it rather more diplomatically, 'it is no more right to hand over the study of military history to professional soldiers alone than it would be to permit no-one but lawyers to touch constitutional history ... It is not the soldier alone who should know the outlines of the past history of his art." The thirteen books by Sir Charles Oman restored to print by Greenhill are: The Great Revolt of 1381 A History of the Art of War in the Middle Ages: Volume One A History of the Art of War in the Middle Ages: Volume Two A History of the Art of War in the Sixteenth Century A History of the Peninsular War (7 Volumes) Wellington's Army Studies in the Napoleonic Wars Back to Greenhill Military Book News No. 92 Table of Contents Back to Greenhill Military Book News List of Issues Back to Master Magazine List © Copyright 1999 by Greenhill Books This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com